Guimarães Favorites

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Favorite thing: Here you can see a few of those views over the city and looking into the castle along the exterior walls. The wooden bridge leads into the central tower in the castle where there is a small display of armor and other items.

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Favorite thing: From the center of the old town in Guimaraes it is hike up the hill to the top where you will find the statue of Afonso Enriques with the Castelo de Guimaraes as a backdrop. You approach the castle through a nice park where you can also visit Paco dos Duques (the home of the first duke of Braganca and the Igreja de Sao Miguel (church).
Castelo de Guimaraes is a small castle in size and not so oppressive as some we have seen, nor is it forbidding or overwhelming..."comfortable" might be a better word if you could apply that word to a castle made of stone blocks.
Climb the crenelated outer walls to enjoy a beautiful view over the park and city.
If you want more of the history, try:
http://www.visitportugal.com/NR/exeres/475E34EC-E4AD-4BE1-A8F6-58F55B138A0D,frameless.htm
And this site has some photos that I liked:
http://www.guiadacidade.pt/pt/poi-castelo-de-guimaraes-13944

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Favorite thing: The old town of Guimaraes is one of the best preserved we have seen, it seems to be in almost pristine condition, as if it was a living musuem. Breathing, but not touched. On the day we visited it seemed that the center was deserted, we enjoyed walking from point to point almost without hinderance, no bumping of elbows or jostling of camera or cars whizzing past, VERY FEW people and sometimes NO people let us enjoy the UNESCO preserved architecture of the old town of Guimaraes before we began our climb toward the castle at the top of the hill.

Favorite thing: You will need to be quick, or quiet to catch this small irridescent light and dark green lizard of Citania de Briteiros. The light green, almost a lime color, makes the dark green coloration look almost black when he is out of the sunlight. When he ran into the sunlight the colors seemed to sparkle.

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Favorite thing: The hilltop is covered with stone paths winding from homestead to homestead, from field to field all the way to the top where you have a fine view of the surroundings (well what you can see through the trees anyway).
The last photo here shows the ring wall that surrounded the upper section of Citania de Briteiros. Only about 2 meters high, but apparently enough to protect the people from whatever was attacking them, or at least till the Romans showed up.

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Favorite thing: Near Guimaraes are the ancient ruins of Citania de Briteiros, a must see for those of us who love ancient history. Since Citania de Briteiros is dated at over 2,000 years old, then it is well in the catagory of "ancient". I really loved wandering the stone paths through this iron age settlement on its hilltop overlooking the surrounding countryside.
Try this site if you are interested in more historical and photographic information.
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/13222/citania_de_briteiros.html
The photos here show various round living structures (or what is left of them) .
There is also a photo with Zohara standing in front of a reconstructed house.

Favorite thing: Houses in Guimarães are very pleasant and kind of "cute". The ones situated on the historic centre still maintain their medieval feel – very small houses with nice wooden windows and typical balconies decorated with flower vases. Some of them are, fortunately, very well-kept.

There are some other buildings to mention, as is the case of the houses that surround Praça do Toural, which are beautiful on my opinion. And while strolling around other streets of the city, also on the historic centre but off the main routes, I came across a lot of nice houses, both buildings and manor houses, some of them more elaborate and some more simple, but all very pleasant and generally speakoing well-kept. Some of them are even very colourful, providing a “lively” look to the city.

Favorite thing: I think that this is the third time that I analyse in VT a statue from Cutileiro. I must confess that I met the artist a couple of times, found him wise and gentle, but... I can't understand his art.
In Guimarães I saw two statues of our first king, one from Soares dos Reis, created in the 1874, and the other from Cutileiro in 2001. In my picture it's possible to see them side by side, and easy to guess who is who, but my question is: Is really Guimarães richer with such "monument`"?